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Eroding Kashmiriyat The Newsletter | No.52 | Winter 2009 The Newsletter | No.52 | Winter 2009 12 The Study The Study 13 Eroding Kashmiriyat to weaken during the insurgency phase in Kashmir. In fact, during the insurgency phase, secular India faced a unique challenge in tackling the influence of radical Islam in the Kashmir valley. But, even during the worst days of a trauma- tised Kashmir society, faith in this composite syncretic aspect remained unchallenged. The advent of Islam in Kashmir gave birth to inter-sectarian Kashmir has become both a symbol and Secular identity vs. Islamic identity conflict, religious conversion and separatism. Fundamental Indeed, Kashmir was the only area in India where, as of the Islam does not permit its followers to forge links with any battleground of competing ideologies. mid-1980s, Islamic revivalism had taken a radical political country and its culture. Pakistan, unfortunately, subscribes stance and where the slogans of the Islamic state have been to this idea. During the insurgency, India was not fighting Pakistan’s desperate bid to destroy publicly raised and received with growing popularity. There a war in Kashmir, but here, a purely domestic uprising was was a marked erosion of the secular Kashmiri personality and turned into a low-intensity conflict by Pakistan through 1 Kashmiriyat (‘Kashmiri-ness’) was a way a Muslim identity with fundamentalist overtones started training, equipping, financing, supplying manpower and emerging rapidly. Therefore, it also became imperative for encouraging cross-border terrorism in the name of Islam. of imposing Islamic fundamentalism emerging separatist leaders to give the struggle a pan-Islamic There was, of course, within the militant movement, a ‘strong character.4 Syed Ali Shah Gilani of the Jammat-e-Islami of pro-Pakistani Islamic current’.11 Having designated Islam as on a community known for its communal Kashmir, a prominent secessionist leader, openly supported a creed that was potent enough to challenge the communist the idea of Islamic brotherhood and his pan-Islamism was based thrust into Afghanistan, it became necessary to promote the harmony, secularism and liberal ethos. on the concept of Ummah (unity based on Islamic solidarity). combative and aggressive aspects of the faith (Islam) on the part of Pakistan, and India had to bear a major brunt of it in Fundamentalist Islam from across During the first phase of militancy which started in 1989, Kashmir.12 In India, we have seen Islamic fundamentalism’s the Pakistani-backed Islamist militant groups tried to bring most ugly face in Kashmir where a violent secessionist move- the border tried to distort India’s ‘structural changes at cultural levels of Kashmiri society’,5 ment has been engineered by Muslim radicals supported by in an effort to Islamicise the socio-political set up in the Pakistan. This is the biggest legacy of General Zia who wanted secular image by blurring the eclectic valley. The Islamist orientation of insurgency became more to make Pakistan the centre of worldwide Islamic resurgence pronounced with the forced displacement of Hindu Kashmiri and who brought the Islamic parties to the centre stage. and syncretic aspects of Kashmiriyat. Pundits, which impacted the socio-cultural set up and secular polity of Kashmir. Pakistani sponsored Islamists had a clear Conclusion Sanjeeb Mohanty examines how Pakis- objective to cleanse the state of non-Muslim minorities. Pakistan has, all along, tested tolerance by attempting to Their other aim was to eliminate the traditional social and weaken the syncretic aspect of Kashmiriyat. Pakistan must tan’s attempts to erode Kashmiriyat were religious practices of Kashmir Muslims, who trace their origins realise that in the ongoing struggle between secularism to Kashmiriyat. By the end of 1990, the issue of Islamic and fundamentalism, the former is always the winner, since designed to shorten the ideological and brotherhood had fetched increased international support the faith in the socio-cultural fabric of Hindu-Muslim unity particularly from Islamic countries. General Zia did not want in Jammu and Kashmir shall remain unchallenged. We must emotional distance between Kashmiri to see that the resistance in Jammu and Kashmir to New not see the conflict in the state as being between Hindus Delhi’s rule should acquire a credible secular edge. So, he and Muslims, but as between national and anti-national Muslims and their Pakistani brethren. played the Muslim card to distort the secular image of India. forces. Islam in India is much more syncretic than elsewhere. India, on the other hand, has been emphasising that Pakistan This inclusivist tendency has been prevalent since the Sanjeeb Kumar Mohanty is fanning controversy in Jammu and Kashmir merely because pre-colonial period of Mughal rule in India. At a time when it has an ideological bias against secular politics. radical Islamic ideologies are trying to gain the upper hand across the world, Indian Muslims have shown their deep From soft Sufi to radical Islam commitment to the secular ideal. The Pakistani strategy during Pakistan tried to indoctrinate the gullible masses in Kashmir the insurgency phase was to create social and communal with selected discourses on radical Islam as opposed to the disorder and thereby weaken the secular base of communal tolerant facets of Islam represented by Sufism. Since Sufism amity. In fact, Pakistan was under the impression that preached universal brotherhood, irrespective of creed, faith Kashmiriyat had no psychic roots in the state, except in the or temporal denomination, the hardcore Islamists from plural reverence for other religions. This illusion prompted Pakistan overturned everything that soft Sufi (liberal Islam) Pakistan to transplant its fundamentalist ideology to combat stood for. Indian Islam, in fact, has its own indigenous flavour the liberal Hindu ideal of brotherhood of man which emanates and it finds its best expression in the Sufi way of life in the from the philosophy of ‘sarvadharma sambhava’.13 Kashmir valley. Kashmir Islam is renowned for its commitment Pakistan’S View OF India through the prism of bigoted Islam to tolerance of all streams of thought. To many Kashmiris, Islamic fundamentalism, aided and abetted by Pakistan. Sanjeeb Kumar Mohanty has been guided by its communal and non-secular mindset. This Kashmiriyat embodies religious and social harmony and Pan-Islamic fundamentalism still continues to pose a serious Department of Political Science, mindset questions the reality of Kashmiriyat (the ethno-cultural brotherhood. The syncretic aspect of Kashmiriyat has been threat to Kashmiri nationalism. Pakistan felt that the division Berhampur University, Orissa, India. identity and values of Kashmiris). The challenge from Pakistan a gift of Rishi-Sufi order, which is an expression of Hindu- of Jammu and Kashmir along communal lines will strengthen [email protected] has essentially been related to Kashmir’s ethno-cultural assertion Muslim solidarity and religious harmony. the sentiments of Muslim solidarity which can then be used to in a plural society. Pakistan has achieved considerable success undermine Kashmiriyat. In fact, ‘lack of adequate support by In India, we have in transforming the nature of Islam in Jammu and Kashmir, from Pakistan’s policy makers initially tried to prolong the conflict in secular national parties to the genuine aspirations of the region Notes seen Islamic a more tolerant Sufi kind into something more Arab Sunni in Kashmir, terrorise the minorities and taint the Kashmir freedom helped this process of communalization.’9 Eventually, Kashmiri 1. Kashmiriyat is the ethno-national and social conscious- fundamentalism’s character. This was necessary for sustaining militancy in the struggle with communal colour, but did not try to dislodge separatism and Hindu communalism in Jammu and elsewhere ness and cultural values of the Kashmiri people. Emerging most ugly face in state, and to mobilise Kashmiri sentiment in favour of Pakistan India from the state. Their immediate plans were designed to reinforced each other to the advantage of Pakistan, which approximately around the 16th century, it is characterised by Kashmir where a and away from political forces supporting independence. buy time for a long-term strategy and the crux of this strategy saw the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir as jihad. Hence, both religious and cultural harmony, patriotism and pride for their violent secessionist However, the effort to change the nature of Islam in the valley has been to undermine the forces of Kashmiriyat, by dividing material and moral support is provided by Pakistan through the mountainous homeland of Kashmir. The tradition of Kashmiriyat movement has was also intended to make the resolution of the political problem them and depriving them of their religious underpinnings. emergence of what may be described as a militant pan-Islamic has been deeply affected by the ongoing Kashmir conflict been engineered of Jammu and Kashmir still more difficult. Pakistan’s aim of grab- Indirectly, Pakistan employed dreadful coercive methods to jihad. Pakistan entered the scene with its theory of Islamic and by communal violence between Muslims and Hindus by Muslim radicals bing Kashmir has remained constant but the manner of doing blur the ‘ethno-religious identity of Kashmir’,6 and substitute brotherhood and forced Kashmiri Muslims to abjure the idea (Source – Wikipedia). supported by so has been changing from military to militancy. The Pakistani the Islamic identity enveloped in Rishi (analogous to Sufi order) of the brotherhood of man. Pakistan’s message was ‘love your 2. Editorial, ‘Parameters in Jammu and Kashmir’, Hindustan Pakistan. backed separatists tried all possible means to break Kashmir’s traditions with a militant and violent Muslim identity. Pakistan’s neighbour more than your brother’,10 which was followed in Times, New Delhi, 30 July,1997. connection with India by tearing apart the fabric of Kashmiriyat planners have shown a greater sensitivity to the contradictions letter and spirit during the phase of insurgency. Moreover, 3. Nayar, Kuldip.
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